


You can aim for my heart

by Donteatthefootcream



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Near Death Experiences, Past Relationship(s), Stabbing, Touch-Starved Herbert West, ya know the works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:01:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25518493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Donteatthefootcream/pseuds/Donteatthefootcream
Summary: Daniel Cain has a heart, a strong and powerful one, and maybe that's why Herbert West fell in love with him.
Relationships: Daniel Cain/Herbert West
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	You can aim for my heart

Daniel Cain has a heart. A strong one that pumps with compassion and selflessness. His brown eyes eager and welcoming, his large hands strong and comforting. His chest is firm and smooth and if listened to close enough, his heart thumps a steady beat. A beat that could lull anyone to sleep. His heart is what makes Daniel Cain the man he is. The doctor with gifts and potential or the simple medical student who all the girls swoon for. Without his heart, who would Daniel Cain be? 

Perhaps Daniel Cain's heart is what drew Herbert to him in the first place. At first glance, there was nothing truly spectacular about the taller man. Originally, all he was to Herbert was some polite student who needed a roommate. Then, he became intriguing. His beloved cat was found dead in Herbert's room, and while his girlfriend Meg jumped immediately to Herbert being the cause of death, Dan believed _Herbert._ The man he'd only known for a couple of weeks, a practical stranger, and he'd chosen him over his own girlfriend. That's when Herbert first saw Daniel Cain's weakness, or maybe, his strongest trait. Daniel Cain holds a love and trust for everyone. He sees the best in every person he lays eyes on. And that is Daniel Cain's heart. 

In the beginning, Daniel Cain's heart _pounded_ for Meg Halsey. The girl he believed destiny put with him, the girl he planned to marry. But that all fell apart in one night. And his heart, the heart Herbert began to listen for in the silence and calm, fell quiet and dim. No longer was their a rhythmic beat keeping Herbert composed. It scared him. Scared him into thinking Dan would no longer stay. That he no longer would see the best in Herbert West and he would give up in trying to keep care of him. Yet, by the near end of their disappointing adventure in Peru, the heart had returned. His charming smile and his passion for helping strangers came back.

Dan saved Herbert's life in Peru when he really should've left him in that tent. He should've left Herbert to save himself and that stupid reagent and those stupid iguanas, but he didn't. He stayed and met the end of a machete in return. Herbert stitched him up, the faded, but still beating heart calming him through the stitches. 

Maybe Herbert fell in love with Dan because he had something Herbert didn't. _A heart._ Herbert West has never fallen for anyone before, or loved truly anyone. His parents were a means to an end. Friends were never worth his time. His patients were an experiment, a next possible fresh corpse to mutilate and use. But Dan was different. Kind, loyal, and his heart beat for Herbert West after everything. The fights, the murders, the cold shoulders, and the constant disrespect for the dead. Herbert West is trouble. Dangerous trouble, a grenade ready to explode and ruin everything Daniel Cain has worked for, but Dan stays.

Dan tried to make his heart beat for Francesca. He really did, but the entire time, there was Herbert. Herbert who told him to go home after Gloria died. Herbert who tried to win over Dan's heart with Meg's. Herbert who has been the one since Meg and is always the one for comfort, no matter how robotic it might feel. Francesca was beautiful, a woman with a bright future and a bright smile who didn't need Daniel Cain or Herbert West further dampening her light. So, Dan's heart forgot about her. His heart went back to his patients and especially Herbert, the mad scientist living in their basement. 

The winter after the crypt collapsing is cold. Not just weather wise, but Dan wise as well. His heart continues to beat, but it's not as lively as it used to be. It's cold like the temperatures. His mood is dark and impatient. They found somewhere else, a different city, a different state. Dan claimed the Miskatonic halls haunted him, the very city was a constant reminder of the things they've done. The deaths, the destruction, everything. So, Herbert packed up his tools and equipment, even though he couldn't understand. Because it was Dan, and upsetting him more wasn't acceptable. He can't lose him. He can't lose the thrum of his heart that Herbert's has found his own syncing with. 

Spring in the new house definitely brings rain. Dan takes more shifts at the hospital in a way to avoid Herbert, but always comes home with something for Herbert to eat. Although he doesn't bring it down to the basement or even tell Herbert it's there, he leaves it in the kitchen for Hebert to find. Sometimes Herbert will be standing in the kitchen, standing there waiting for his new batch of coffee to brew, and Dan will return home dampened from the spring showers. And he'll smile, the way he used to before the collapse, and Herbert will feel his heart beat a tad bit faster. Dan will invite him to watch a movie or ask what he wants to eat and Herbert will have hope. Hope that Dan will finally stop acting as if Herbert's presence isn't a burden. 

When the end of spring arrives, Dan comes back from his night shift. There's a storm, enough to drench Dan on the short walk to the house from the car. He's smiling and looks far too awake for someone returning from the night shift. He drops his stuff on the kitchen table, just big enough for two, and goes down to the basement for the first time in months without reluctance and crossed arms. He finds Herbert, bent over a dead raccoon and probing, and for the first time since the move Herbert can hear Dan's heart again. Beating the way it used to, loving and eager for the day ahead. It has Herbert entranced, forgetting entirely about the animal on the table. 

Dan approaches Herbert and wraps his arms around him, holding him tightly to him. Herbert can feel Dan's heart beating again, the rush of his heart in his pulse where Herbert holds Dan's wrist. Dan begins to laugh, a soft and kind one, and then he's kissing Herbert. He's kissing him passionately and lovingly and it makes Herbert wonder if this is Dan's heart speaking. His heart that nearly gave up only to be reborn again. Then Dan stops the kissing steadily, pulling Herbert into a hug with his head underneath Dan's chin, and he tells Herbert he loves him. Stupidly and pathetically loves him after everything. 

"It's your heart, Dan," Herbert mutters. 

Dan's grip tightens. "What?"

Herbert brings a hand to Dan's chest, right over his heart. "It's your heart."

Summer is a flurry of emotions. The stress of keeping everything under wraps at their new hospital. The jealousy that spurs in Herbert as patients and nurses and female doctors make passing glances at Dan or some sort of flirtatious comment. Yet, Dan is there every night and his heart beats for Herbert. Only Herbert. It's beautiful, the sound of hearts beating in love. 

Ever since Dan first kissed him, Herbert finally began to realize what touch-starved truly means. Dan provides passing touches, touching Herbert's side while walking past, grabbing his hand in a lose hold, or pecking a kiss to his cheek. Herbert has grown to live for those touches, has begun to lean into them and wish for more. When Dan kisses him, Herbert listens and feels for Dan's heart, the way it reacts. The way it beats for him is not like it was for Meg, but it's the same passion. 

He discovers in the summer that he wants Dan. Wants Dan more than he wants the reagent to work. He wants Dan by his side forever, reagent or not. Daniel Cain, his best friend, first love, and final love. 

He knows that Dan wants him too from the way he kisses and holds him. Dan is a physical lover, finds it easier to express his devotion through intimate or generous gestures. Herbert, well, he doesn't really do anything except accept Dan's advances. He's never told Dan he loved him, finding something like that too vulnerable for him to handle. He doesn't have Dan's size, all he has is his walls up with moats and armies. He likes to believe that partaking in activities he usually wouldn't all because Dan asked is enough too. 

When they have sex the first time, an aftermath of adrenaline running from a successful experiment, Herbert believes this gesture could be the way to tell Dan he loves him. To allow Dan to have his way with him, to pant into Herbert's open mouth after sloppy kisses and to suck at his skin until he's sure he'll be purple by the morning. Dan is a gentle lover, moving in and out of him with such care that it makes Herbert want to cry. It's overwhelming. He knew sex, making love, would be pleasurable, but it's more than just that. It's loving and so intimate that it makes Herbert forget everything apart from Dan. 

However, Herbert doesn't say he loves Dan then either. Not even when Dan is breathing the sentiment into Herbert's ear. Instead, Herbert makes note of their shared breathing and heartbeat. He couldn't love before Dan, never even considered it, but here he is giving everything to the man he claims to be his soul mate. He kisses Dan afterwards, bringing his hands into Dan's longer hair and kissing him senseless. As if he had much sense in the afterglow. 

"I love you," Dan breathes. 

Herbert continues kissing him, humming in response. He hopes Dan knows it's the best form of reciprocation he can give. 

After the first time, Herbert discovers that sex with Dan is more gratifying than any award, success, or praise could ever give him. They fumble around in closets at work or Herbert has him by the lips the time they walk through the front door. As the temperatures of summer dwindle down and the days become shorter, Herbert slows things down as well. He loves Dan, would drop everything (hesitantly) for him if asked, but he's found that sex isn't everything. Nice on occasion, but the average dinners Dan makes for him and the adoring looks are just as nice. Or the way he clings to Herbert at the night, making up from the new lack of warmth. 

"Herbert, you have to stop this!" Dan tries to demand, voice too defeated to be forceful. 

They're in the basement, not as dank and spooky as the last one, but Herbert approved nonetheless. Dan thought that after the Bride, living proof that conscious is not just in the brain, he'd be done with this. The stitching of detached limbs together, the morbid and disturbing creatures were done for. No longer needed to prove Herbert's theory, yet here Dan is standing here and staring at this _thing_ with the same amount of disgust as he had all the other times. 

"There's nothing wrong with creating new life!" Herbert claims. 

Herbert's not even bothering to look at Dan, to give Dan his full attention. He's too lost in his "science" and experiments to pay Dan any mind. Dan thought they had made progress. Herbert doesn't spend as much time down here as he's done in the past. He'll come from work and spend some time with Dan. He'll read and tell Dan all about it. Herbert was putting time to resurrecting possums and other types of road kill; moving from reptiles to mammals. Not this though. He stopped with this. 

Dan picks up a scalpel from the table and stabs it into the foot with a hand attached to the stump. They don't steal bodies from the morgue for this shit. They steal them in attempts to save people. He throws the scalpel next to the creature with a loud clang bouncing off the stone walls. He expects Herbert to begin his ranting, but he doesn't. Herbert stands there in shock, and Dan doesn't know if it's a bad or good thing. Herbert's never quiet. 

"Why would you do that?" Herbert finally asks. 

"This isn't what I signed up for, Herbert. I didn't sacrifice everything for you to disrespect the dead! We're here to save lives, not do whatever the fuck this is!" He waves his hand at the dead creature, green ooze and red blood seeping slowly onto the metal table. One more mess for Herbert to clean up. 

"It's new-!"

"It's not new life, Herbert. It's a monster. It's deranged!" 

"You had no right to kill it!" 

Dan rounds the table separating the two of them and Herbert steps away from him. He grabs Herbert's shoulders, keeping him from leaving the conversation. Dan tries to calm down, not wanting to to continue this conversation with raised voices. 

"Herbert, you remember the last time you did something like this? What I said?"

_I'm moving out._

Herbert frowns. "You didn't in the end."

"Because you offered something I couldn't refuse at the time."

Herbert shuffles out of Dan's grasp, yet doesn't move anyway. He moves closer, his hands coming to rest on Dan's hips. Dan rolls his eyes, but doesn't go to move Herbert's hands. 

"I can offer something else?"

Dan removes Herbert's this time, sighing with impatience. "Herbert, no, I'm not giving into your manipulation! We stopped doing that! No more manipulating Dan, no matter how innocent!"

"Please just don't leave, okay? I'll stop. Only reanimating corpses for now on."

"Herbert, if you're lying to me. I swear-" Dan pauses, bringing himself to say it and mean it. "-I swear, if you're lying I'll leave, Herbert. For good this time, and I won't come back. You'll never see me again."

Herbert tries again for contact, his hands placed on Dan's chest. One directly over his heart. He can feel the beat, the beat that is as strong as it was in the summer. So passionately in love. Yet, this beat hurts. It's in pain. 

"I swear, Dan. I do."

There's a glimmer of hope in Dan's eyes. He believes Herbert, and he should because means every word of it. He wants Dan forever and if that means no more "strange" experiments, that's frustratingly okay. They've changed, grown since their first meeting. 

Herbert reaches up to kiss him and Dan accepts it, meting him half way. Seal the promise with a kiss. Herbert heard that was something you do with a loved one. 

December comes bursting in with a blizzard. A blizzard so bad the roads are closed, piled with feet and feet of snow. Herbert and Dan are locked up at home, doctors or not. Dan brought down blankets to the basement, knowing it would be too cold for Herbert to get anything done. Dan joins him, brings him something hot to drink. He'll bring him hot chocolate every now and then, just to see Herbert give in to guilty pleasures. 

They're working on a corpse one night, dressed in layers. The tension is high, Herbert speaking into his recorder and grasping at Dan's shoulder as he always does. Dan isn't sure why he does it, maybe to calm him? The dead man in front of them is in their mid-thirties, died from blunt force trauma to the head during a car accident. Tragic. 

Herbert watches Dan intently as Dan administers the reagent. It's a new formula, one that Herbert has hope in. He doesn't believe it'll be the final solution, but it's a grand step forward. Herbert enjoys letting Dan be the one to inject the formula, one of his ways in showing his love for Dan. To involve him in something he's been so devoted to, the ongoing project that brought them together. 

There's a struggling, grunting like noise nearly a minute after the injection. It has them stepping back for precaution, Herbert grabbing the gun from his lab coat. Herbert stands slightly in front of Dan, arm out in a show of protection. Dan only lets him because he has the gun. These moments are terrifying, the prospect of what could go wrong. They end in disaster and death every time. Dan is surprised he can still go through it, and maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's only here to make sure nothing happens to Herbert. 

That sounds about right. 

Because Herbert has become his everything after all the things he's lost. He refuses to leave Herbert's side like all those past times even if the man seems to be a cat with nine lives. 

"Dan!" Herbert shouts, warning Dan of the undead man who's just discovered his working legs.

The man's walking towards them, but his walk isn't a limp. It's more steady. His noises, a form of communication, has not improved from the past tests on others. He keeps advancing and by the tone of his noises he's not pleased. Dan doesn't think he would be either. Dying and then coming back in some weird guys' basement. Dan wonders if these people know they've become experiments after death. Have been disrespected and tested on by Herbert West. 

Herbert pushes Dan back, making him and stumble and fall onto the floor. Dan watches the struggle between the man and Herbert, the gun falling to the floor and Herbert being shoved into the wall. It's a loud, solid noise when his body collides with the wall. He falls and he looks at Dan, a look fear in his eyes. And Dan, the ever so chivalrous hero he is makes the next move. He grabs a knife off of one of the many table littering the basement and he thrusts it into the man's chest. There's a cry of pain, yet it doesn't do much to deter him. 

"Herbert, what the _hell_ did you put in that serum?!" Dan shouts, beginning to panic more than he was before. 

"I thought endurance would improve their entrance into life," Herbert admits, a sound of dread in his voice. 

"You have got to be kidding me, Herbert!"

It's a flash what happens next. A disaster to Dan, incredibly weakening to Herbert. The man pulled the knife out of his chest and into Dan's within seconds. Too fast for Dan to react. He's falling to the ground for the second time and Herbert is scrambling for the gun abandoned on the floor. He's panicking, more than he's ever in his life. _There's a knife in Dan's chest._

He steadies himself when he stands up and tries to bring some sort of calm. Enough calm where he shoot this gun accurately and kill this thing before it can do anymore damage. And he does with sheer luck, nearly tripping over the dead again man to reach Dan's side. Dan was smart enough to not pull the knife out, his doctor knowledge reminding him that removing the knife would allow excessive blood loss or cause more damage.

"Promise me you won't be someone I have to reanimate," Herbert pleads, ripping the shirt away from the knife. 

Dan forces a chuckle that sounds too raspy for Herbert's taste. "I won't, Herbert."

Dan can feel the shaking of Herbert's hands around the wound, trying to inspect the wound. He doesn't mean to groan when Herbert presses too hard, not wanting to scare him more. Herbert sits back on his heels, releasing a sigh. Dan moves to sit up, but falls back from the pain. 

"The knife is too close to your heart. If I move it and make a slight error, millimetres of an error, it could kill you. Or, if you were to move-"

"Herbert, calm down."

"I can't lose you, Dan. Or you heart-"

"Herbert, listen to me right now! There's no fluid leaking, right? That's good."

Herbert shakes his head. "The knife is too close to the aorta. If I puncture it in anyway upon removal, it'll kill you."

Dan grabs Herbert's hand, squeezing it lightly. "Then you're not going to touch the aorta. The brilliant Herbert West can do that."

Herbert nods. "Yes, you're right, Dan. I can pull a knife out. I've done much more trickier things that this." He takes a hold of the knife, taking into a firm grasp. "This is going to hurt, Dan."

"Yeah, I know. Just be quick about it," Dan grits out, trying to prepare himself for the pain. 

"I can't go too quickly, Dan. That could make this much much worse." Herbert looks at Dan for a moment as if he's considering. He kisses him quickly, giving Dan no time to reciprocate. "You can't move, remember that."

Herbert isn't sure what pains him more, the sounds of Dan's pain or the fact that they're in this situation in general. He's pulling a knife out of Dan's chest because of him. He's the cause of Dan's pain. The reason Dan could possibly die. 

He fears what it would be like without the steady beat of Dan's heart, a rhythm that beats for Herbert. A rhythm that Herbert's own heart beats with. What would happen if his own heart lost Dan's? Would he be worse than he was before Dan? Or, would be some mess of a man who's heart feels like it fails every waking moment?

"Herbert, you owe me a date night after all of this shit, got it?" Dan pants, the knife finally out of him. 

Herbert's throwing the knife across the floor, moving his bloody hands to Dan's sweaty face. "A date night and more," Herbert whispers. 

He gets off the floor, searching the table for stitches and a needle. His hands are shaking again, overwhelmed by his own thoughts. Once he finds them, he's leaning over Dan again trying to be as careful as possible with the stitches. He's hurt Dan too much today already. Dan is saying things, but they go right over Herbert's head. If he gets these stitches in, he can take Dan upstairs and lay him in bed and make sure he's okay. He can't afford any new distractions. 

"Are you crying?" Dan asks quietly. 

Herbert finishes the last stitch, and wipes at his face. He guesses he was. He doesn't remember starting. 

"I'm merely having an embarrassing emotional reaction to a petrifying reality, Dan. It's nothing to be worried about."

Dan raises a hand to Herbert's cheek, brushing a stray tear away. "I don't know if I'm lucky or unlucky to have you."

Herbert stops, and brings a hand to cover Dan's own. "I'm lucky." 

He doesn't look him in the eye. 

In the matter of days following the snow was cleared and they could return to their respectable shifts. Dan called in sick, his stitches still healing. Herbert managed to get him upstairs afterwards, putting him in bed and making him stay there. For the first time in the past two years, Dan experiences Herbert's cooking. It's awful, burnt or lacking seasoning. Herbert makes muffins one night though, and those were delicious. Dan hopes he'll make those for the rest of his bed rest. 

Herbert hasn't gone down into the basement since the incident. He stays with Dan or goes to work. Dan doesn't mind Herbert sudden clinginess, it's one less thing to stress about; not having to worry about what Herbert is getting up to. Herbert doesn't talk much when he's with Dan. He'll sit beside him in the bed, textbook balanced in his lap or medical reports to shift through. Sometimes it's nice for Dan to just look at him without worrying about the blood on the man's hands. 

A few weeks later, Dan is starting to feel like his old self. Herbert knew before Dan even said anything. He could hear it through the beat of Dan's heart during the night where he would lay awake, his head resting on Dan's shoulder. Close enough to be lulled by the beat, but further enough to avoid hurting Dan. He's done enough harm. 

He's taken up the cooking. Herbert doesn't enjoy it much and he knows it comes out in the food, the way Dan swallows with a look of disgust just to smile after to avoid hurting Herbert's feelings. He's tried. He's really tried to provide something of good sustenance for Dan, but no matter what he tries to do everything ends up burnt or too salty or too flavorless. He doesn't know why he's bothering with the pancakes currently. 

"Pancakes, huh?" Dan asks from behind. 

Herbert swirls around, looking quite adorable with the spatula in hand. 

"You're supposed to be in bed. Stabbed below the heart, remember?" 

Dan takes away the spatula. "I'm better, Herbert. I could probably go back to work soon."

He frowns. "Dan, you could have died. I don't know-"

Dan flips the pancake, seconds away from being burnt. He softly laughs. "I'm fine, Herbert. I'll just take a few ibuprofen." Dan pecks Herbert's frown. "You're not going to win this one."

So, Herbert gives up. He goes to sit at the table, waiting for Dan. Herbert refuses to smile at the smiley face Dan decorated his pancakes with. No, he won't be smiling at the immaturity, which is Daniel Cain. Not like he loves the man or anything, immaturity aside. 

"I've got to ask. Do you think the scar will look cool?" Dan asks Herbert, trying to lessen the tension in the room. 

"No, it'll be a reminder. An _ugly_ reminder." Herbert pushes the banana slices and chocolate chips off to the side, ruining the face. 

Dan puts down his fork. "Don't blame yourself for what happened, Herbert. You saved me in the end too. Give yourself credit."

Herbert believes his heart has grown stronger from the experience. The fear of losing the thing he cares most about. He knows it'll never be as strong as Dan's. No one compares. Dan is kind and loving and everything Herbert isn't. 

"I-I love you, Dan."

Dan smiles, leaning across the table, completely disregarding the syrup. "Yeah, I know."

**Author's Note:**

> I tried something new with this one. I'm not sure if this will be a regular type of writing style for me, but I did like this.
> 
> Would also like to point out that all my medical knowledge is from that one episode of "the 100".


End file.
